Why these statements are so weird is because both preachers are clearly implying that Baptists are and always have been in favor of racial equality. Grear’s comments are the most explicit in that regard, but Price’s aren’t far behind. The problem is that those implications are absolute, unequivocal lies…
I’ve also, for several years, had two hanging baskets that I usually put fuchsias into. A lot of the stores with garden centers in our region have a push with fuchsias at the beginning of April, so if I head to one of them in the first weekend or so of that month, I can find dozens of different varieties of fuchsia to choose from. Since I didn’t get to that until June this year, I had exactly two varieties to choose from, one that results in blooms that have dark purple centers and red exteriors, and the other has white centers with pink exteriors. There also weren’t very many of each.
Continue reading Vegetables in the dirt, part 2
Since the people who mow the lawn don’t do weeds, I also go around the lawn with my weed weasel from time to time. The weed tool is one of those things with spikes that impale the root of the weed below the ground, so you yank out the weed and leave a little hole maybe 2 inches wide and 3 inches deep. After I pull a bunch of weeds, I go around with a bag of grass seed and a bag of potting soil. I drop a big pinch of seeds in the hole, then fill it with potting soil.
When I set my goals for the year, I tried to set very concrete steps for achieving. Inspired by a friend’s suggestion, I tried to identify a better habit to replace each bad habit.
I said I’d do regular check-ins on the goals I set for the year, and it’s another month, so how am I doing? Continue reading How are those goals progressing?
Once more, Friday is upon us.
Here’s a collection of news and other things that struck me as worthy of being shared:
What Does This Mean?. A great article about deciphering a 1903 trade magazine advertisement.
It’s three times cheaper to give housing to the homeless than to keep them on the streets.
Don’t Worry So Much: How Not To Review Women’s Writing.
Catholic Parents Furious Same-Sex Couple Has Adopted The Children They Abused.
Why It Matters That Politicians Have No Experience of Poverty.
Judge: Conservative groups cannot become co-defendants in Miami-Dade gay marriage lawsuit.
Star Within a Star: Weird Stellar ‘Hybrid’ Discovered.
Marvel At The ‘Most Colorful View of Universe’ Ever Seen By Hubble Telescope.
Science Confirms: Yup, This Book Really Is Bound in Human Skin.
LEGO’s new toys celebrate women in science.
GOP Homophobia So Bad Not Even GOProud Can Stand It Anymore.
It Shouldn’t Take Magic to Be Accepted.
The Missing Neutrino Evidence –“A Clue to the Origin of the Universe and Matter”.
FLORIDA: Backlash Grows Against AG Pam Bondi For Supporting Marriage Ban.
The Zero Gravity Cocktail Project, Boldly Designing a Cocktail Glass for Space.
My alma mater, Seattle Pacific University, was the site of a multiple-shooting yesterday. This occurred just two miles from my house: Mayor, County Executive, and Governor Respond to Seattle Pacific University Shooting and Call for Action on Gun Violence.
Ryland’s Story (I needed a hanky…):
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ASAP Science – Can You Trust Your Ears?:
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Sam Smith – Stay With Me ft. Mary J. Blige:
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Show Me Your Pride – By Miss Coco Peru:
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But there isn’t an easy answer to the first version of the question. I can remember very vividly the first time it was made clear to me, without a doubt, that I was different in a fundamental way from most of the people I knew. And furthermore that that difference had something to do with the meanings of the words “boyfriend” and “girlfriend.”
That incident happened a bit more than three months before my fifth birthday…
Continue reading We aren’t the ones recruiting
Which isn’t good, because we have lots of things that use that particular cable to charge. So when we got back I went to a site online where I have previously purchased reasonably priced cables, and I ordered a bunch of one-foot long micro USB cables (they were less than a buck). While I was at it, I tossed a couple of three-foot versions of the cable into my shopping cart (they were more than a buck, but not my much), just to cover all our bases.
I figured I’d put one each of the short cables in my work backpack, my personal laptop backpack, my travel computer bag (which is different), and Michael’s laptop backpack. And then I planned to pull out all of the chargers in my travel computer bag, count up all of the headphones and things we usually take with us on trips that require a micro USB connector, and make sure that I had enough of the adaptors and chargers in the travel bag to charge them all simultaneously.
The online cable source, as these websites often do, offered some suggestions of other items that were similar to the merchandise already in my cart which I might be interested in purchasing. One of which was a long micro USB cable that had flashing LEDs built into the ends. It was being offered as a “hot deal” marked down to less than two bucks.
Now, I know the reality is that the cables were being marked down because no one needs adaptor cables with flashing LEDs on each end, so people were buying cheaper cables without flashing LEDs. So the things had been sitting on shelves unsold for a long time. The company just wanted to get rid of them.
But I looked at the pictures of the cables with the lights on the end, and they looked cool and silly. I just could not stop myself from clicking Add To Cart.
And once I did, the website (recognizing a sucker when it had one), changed the suggested items displayed. And look! There was a ten-foot long lightning adaptor cable! Ten-feet! We actually had a need some time back for an extra long iPad charging cable, and I’d wound up buying a couple of ten-foot models. They worked great, and it was kind of silly and fun to, when I first got them, set one up on a charger on one side of the room and string it out to plug an iPod or iPad into it on the other side of the room.
And you never know when you might need a cable like that, so of course I clicked Add To Cart!
And look! They were now suggesting I might be interested in white iPod adaptor cables marked way down. I have been worrying just a little bit about those cables, because Apple is phasing them out, but we have several older iPods we use for various things around the house that use that adapter. One of those iPods that we still use (it plays wake up music from the far side of the bedroom at me every morning) is a 2nd generation iPod mini from 2005, and it still works great, so I have no intention of tossing it until it dies. And I fully expect the 2010 model iPod Touch that we use in the car to last at least as long as the mini has. I’m going to need those adaptors for some years, yet, and cables that are used frequently do eventually wear out. I just recently threw away one in the car (replacing it with a cable from my computer desk) because I had to jiggle it to get the connection to work. So stashing several away against the day when they’re no longer sold isn’t a bad idea, right?
Add To Cart.
So the box of cables arrived a couple of days later. I’ve distributed the cables to our various computer bags and such as planned. And I’ve used the silly flashing LED cable to recharge a battery case (it doesn’t just flash at both ends; the LEDs change color as they flash!).
But while I was stashing all those things away, I also pulled out some older adaptors and cables for things that we no longer own. I put those obsolete cables and adaptors in with the pile of dead headphones that I had found stashed behind my second monitor when I cleaned out my desk last month. And I carried them (along with some other things that need to go to the recycler) out to the car.
Did I go overboard with the new cables? Probably. Will some of these cables languish around, forever waiting to be used, and ten years from now get sent off to recycle? Most assuredly.
Am I going to be able to prevent myself from ordering extra charging cables the next time I notice a shortage of a particular type? Almost certainly not.
But you know what? I just plugged in the flashing LED cable, again. And it made me grin. I might have even giggled, just a little bit.
So I regret nothing!
The other interesting thing to note on the sign is the date of the “next meeting” given on the sign. June 2nd is not a Sunday, it’s Monday night. The same night that another nearby institution, the Ali Forney Center (“Housing for Homeless LGBT Youth”) which opened a new shelter near the church the same night Manning’s sign went up. And the Ali Forney Center is having a rally to raise money for more shelters for queer homeless teens on the evening of June 2.
Manning and his church sign have featured in several of my previous posts, where he warned about white homo devils steal black men from good black women, where he proclaimed that Jesus would be stoning homos to death if he were here now, and so on. And people have argued that we should just ignore him, because he’s just crazy and the only people listening to him are crazy, et cetera.
Here’s why I especially can’t do that in this instance: Manning and scores of other ministers like him (and the “crazy” people who listen to him) are the reason that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans children are thrown out of their homes by their own parents. Manning tells these parents that their gay kids are sinners. He tells them that their gay children are demonic. He tells them that their gay children will molest their own brothers and sisters unless they are driven from their homes.
He is one of the reasons that the majority of homeless teens are non-heterosexual. He’s one of the reasons that so many of those homeless teens are murdered on the streets every year. He’s on of the reasons that so many queer teens commit suicide rather than risk telling their parents that they think they might be gay.
And he’s planning a special service to pray for the failure of a charity event intended to raise money to help a fraction of those teens beat the odds and survive.
He is an evil, evil man. And it is immoral for us to stand silently by while such evil men perpetuate their evil.
I’m just a fat, old white homo living on the other side of the continent from this particular evil man. And this is just one very small blog. But I’ll use what voice I have. And I’ll make a donation to the Ali Forney Center as well as one to the local YouthCare.
And I’ll urge (and plead) that anyone who reads this does the same.
There is a bit of a panic. And because this is a dream, even though just a minute before the bus may have been sitting at a bus stop I recognize somewhere in Seattle, now we’re on a long, winding road going down an unfamiliar mountain.
Continue reading Control
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